Friday, December 18, 2009

1.I will not buy a new army 40k or Fantasy
I currently have 6 armies, 3 for each system (8k Eldar, 4k Dark Eldar, 6k Space Marines, 8k High Elves, 4k Dark Elves, 4k Wood Elves). I do not need a seventh army, no matter how awesome Daemons look, or the fact that I can use them for both fantasy and 40k.

Eldar

2.I will finish basing my Eldar up to 3k
I bought the Dark Art Miniature Lava Bases and they have been sitting in a box unpainted for about 6 months. About 60 troop bases, and 6 large bases for Wraithlords and War Walkers.

3.I will finish painting my Eldar List up to 3k
Everything is 3 color tournament qualified, I just need to highlight all of it.

4.I will finish painting my Scorpion Super Heavy. Even if it will only see 3 games in the next year.

Dark Eldar

5.I will finish modeling/painting/highlighting my Dark Eldar up to 3k
I am currently playing jetbikes with no riders, or riders with no heads/arms, etc. I have been slowly modifying Dark Eldar with Dark Elf parts and I need to just finish it. About 50% is painted to a three color standard, the rest primed black

Space Marines

6.I will finish building my Blood Angel List up to 3k
I have 6k worth of hand me down Space Marines I want to turn into Blood Angels. No Drop Pods, no Baal Predators, no Rhinos, no Attack Bikes, and only 5 Assault Marines. I do have 30 some odd scouts, and 20 devastators, and 20 old school small based terminators that I will never use. If GW does drop a new Blood Angel’s codex in 2010, I would love to have this ready to go. I guess this is like buying a new army if you consider all the vehicles I need to find.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

I hear this conversation all the time, and my true motive for posting this here is only to bring another idea/use for the Shuriken Cannon out. I bring it to every game and pop pesky vehicles/dreads in the side/rear constantly.

TheoryThe Eldar Wave Serpent is our transport/tank hybrid vehicle and personally, I think it is by far the best vehicle in the game. It is my opinion that it should maximize both roles to be completely effective. I understand Eldar players may often want to move more than 6” in a turn thus voiding the Shuriken Cannon’s effectiveness for the majority of the game. The difference here is the potentiality now exists where you CAN shoot at vehicles and blow them up on the few turns you NEED to, instead of always shooting your two garbage shots that NEVER do anything worthwhile. Also when/if your main weapon is destroyed, you are STILL a threat.

Shuriken Catapult – 12” Range, S4, AP5, Assault 2, Twin-LinkedThese will always hit with the TL, but will only wound 50% of the time against MEQ who will get a 3+ armor save anyway. If you fire this gun every turn (which you wont due to 12" range), you may realistically kill 2-5 troops in an entire game. They need 6’s to glance AV10 vehicles and are honestly not a threat to anyone.

Shuriken Cannon – 24” Range, S6, AP5, Assault 3 +10 pointsWith the BS: 3 you will only hit 1 – 2 shots each turn but your target completely changes. AV10/11 Vehicles become juicy possibilities, especially later in the game. If you fire this gun 3 times in a game, you may realistically penetrate 1 – 3 vehicles in a game, combine this with a Bright Lance and your target priority becomes much stronger.

Paired with Bright LancesIf you decide to shoot at a vehicle with a single Bright Lance, you have one shot to make it happen. If you hit, and you penetrate, and they do not have a cover save, and you actually roll on the chart they still have a 1-6 shot of nothing really happening. If you can combine this with 3 more shots at the same vehicle that you are already shooting at anyway, you have 1-3 more rolls to make that puppy blow up.

Eat VehiclesI want to show you some of the vehicles you can pwn with Shuriken Cannon’s that you can’t touch with Shuriken Catapults. And you know just as well as I do how awesome Serpents are at moving into position when you need them to.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

VSWe are going to take the first 6 missions from the Ard Boyz and D6 it.

The Force Organization chart is a little difficult to deal with but we did not want to bump up into an actual full fledge appocolypse game. I wanted to use some of the units that I typically leave in the foam but after agonizing over my list all week I still cannot find space for Shining Spears, Warp Spiders, Swooping Hawks, Vypers, War Walkers, etc, etc, etc. I never use any of the Eldar Fast attack options (save a Vyper squad on occasion) and it didn’t really hit me until now that aside from Vypers in a Saim Hann list, Eldar fast attack units are garbage. I could honestly never see a situation where I would be happy that my Warp Spiders or even Swooping Hawks came in on a Deep Strike. I love Scourges in Dark Eldar but the Lasblaster is no Splinter Cannon and the Exarch upgrades seem fun but not actually useful enough to replace anything I already use. If the Warp Spiders had an actual AP value I could see them dominating all over the board but taking close range pop shots are noth worth the mathmatical potentiality of “if you make them take enough saving throws they will fail some of them” Logic.

So, I typically favor Scorpions over Harlequins and Dark Lances over Fire Dragons but they made the list this time around and I will see how that goes. My biggest problem with Harlequins is that the unit does too much and I often find myself underutilizing their potential. I see a lot of horde armies and honestly, what would you rather throw at a mob of boys a full comand of Scorpions or a full comand of Harlequins? I was extremely temped to take two full commands of Wraithguards and Banshees but I think my list is solid enough without the slow pace of even more foot sloggers and a second group of girls might be unnecessary even if I will be up against a Death Wing full of Terminators.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

My game club meets every Sunday and I have played quite a few more games since the last bunch of posts but I tend to work on many units without finishing anything and I hate taking pictures of my 25% - 75% painted models. I figure I am well past due for an update so here are some of my newer projects in process.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

After looking through the missions for Ard Boyz, specifically the bonus point sections are you guys changing your lists up?

I hesitated taking the Avatar, or at least running him as I normally do because of the HQ point dish out in mission 2. I am only running with 26 KP (10kp from 2 HQ's), but he seems like an easy +5 bonus points and I know I would target him if going against Eldar. Being a distraction unit is kind of the point of the Avatar so it might work even better than normal, but giving extra tourney points can be the kiss of death and I could switch him out for something more survivable.

I beefed up my core units for the same reason, anyone else switching it up to accommodate the scenarios?

Monday, June 15, 2009

I try to play Altansar as an extremely in your face/assaulty army with units that complement each other very well. My goal is to control the movement phase with strong distraction units that enable my second wave to meet the first. Distract, force route, negotiate pin, and flank; a High Elf/Wood Elf hybrid philosophy.

I started with the Dark Reaper Aspect Warrior and tailored a list to support and use them in the most effective manner I could think of. This being said I humbly present my interpretation of this philosophy with the army list that I have been working on now for several months with ridiculous amounts of success. I hope the years of wisdom this blogroll holds will help mold my list to an even tighter and more successful army.

I usually run Eldrad Ulthran from Ulthwe due to the lack of an Altansar Farseer. The redeploy option optimizes my small unit list to an absurd degree and he adds that punch to the Howling Banshees. My story takes place at the beginning of the Eye of Terror when the Craftworlds where being engulfed by chaos. Altansar readies itself for the inevitable destruction:

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

I was actually planning to post this several weeks ago, but with an awesome military exercise, I completely forgot about it until FTW posted the “painting a model…in pieces?” bit.

My mantra in life is: “I strive for greater levels of efficiency”. I find a pattern in everything I do, a subtle way of doing things in a more lean, organized, and effective manner to create maximum output with minimum input. I move the things I need closer to me and organize by order of importance, extent, and length of use. It is an over thought engineered lifestyle, but when actual free time is a precious commodity, the benefits pay off immensely.

We as hobbyists already understand that when painting a mass of models that require the same color, an assembly line approach is worthwhile. We have logically concluded that to minimize changing colors on a paintbrush and to gain momentum with a defined and effective stroke repeating the same action numerous times is more efficient than say painting one models arm blue and immediately painting another models legs red. A step further than this becomes obvious when you examine your assembled models. Sure, you can dart the brush in and around arms and legs with ease. A skilled painter can use a micro brush with the precision of a scalpel and dazzle onlookers with extra effects, zig zag trims, runes, and other decorations all the while avoiding the pieces that overlap. This approach is not worth the time it takes to concentrate and avoid the obstacles. If even one time you slip and have to swap colors just to correct a mistake, you have wasted minutes of your precious time. The time you spend being surgically careful to create an exceptionally neat job is worthless if you could simply relax and remove the obstacles. Think of the time you waste picking one model up just to put him back down and pick a second model up when you could hold a sprue of arms and paint them all at once. The brush leaves the painting area to refill on paint and that is it. Keep the sprue and brush close to your paint and that is even less time you are wasting. Imagine how less careful you need to be if you use the sprue as a handle (instead of cramping your fingers around a tiny hand) and fly through the basics.

Let’s face it, we all know how completely convoluted these models with their unique poses and extra bits can be. All these extra seconds you spend being unnecessarily careful, moving around obstacles, picking up and putting down models, touching up minor slipups all add up to extra models painted. I also cannot express to you how satisfying it is to cut all of your painted bits out at one time, and within 5 minutes have completed units.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I spent a lot of time trying to place my terrain pieces in the center to slow the horde down as much as possible; when I lost the option to pick a starting position I realized just how scarce my cover was going to be. I wanted to protect myself from the defcoptas so I made a cover shield with the Harleys and put some scorpions out as bait. Harry has a tendency to kamikaze his coptas into taking out the biggest thing possible, and with his scout move and him going first, I wanted to bring everything in tight. The tanks in the back, the reavers behind cover, the monsters blocking them and the tanks, and the giant harley wall for the avengers. The scorpions where all dead by turn 2 (with my sorry rolls) but put 6 wounds on the copta squad and held them into position for the Dark Reapers on my second shooting phase. The Death Jester managed to pin a unit of bikes and the WraithLord took out the Ork Wagon all on turn 1, we had to cut this short after aggroing my wife. I need to learn a snare or debuff for when I grab that hate. 2k rescheduled for Saturday, time to revamp my list.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Dire Avengers at about 85%. I need to retouch the faces, base them properly, and add the accessories. I washed the red a shade darker to create a distinct difference between the Dire Avengers and the Guardians; I think the color turned out rather well. One thing that rather irritates me here are the grenade packs and Predator style over the shoulder laser gun bits that are included. I wish these guys had grenades or some sweet shoulder gun in the codex; I almost don’t want to attach them because it’s unsupported altogether. I am still working on the banner for the Exarch but frankly, I am not sure what to do with it. A fatty Altansar logo for sure, but these guys are too pimp to leave it at that.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The practice game was mediocre at best. I stole all the 6’s leaving only 1’s for Larry’s dice for the first two entire turns making the match one sided from the get go and ruining any chance of really seeing either lists potential. My first turn immobilized a Rhino, destroyed the Defiler, and killed 3/5 of the Havoc team, not to mention put my units in a strategic position for the rest of the game. Larry’s turn was shortchanged when his left over Havoc shot a 14 at my Falcon and rolled a 6 (Destroyed – Explodes) on the chart but was quickly disregarded for a 2 (Crew – Stunned) due to the Holo-Field upgrade, and that was reverted to “Crew Shaken” because of Spirit Stones. His Dreadnought refused to cooperate four turns in a row creating unnecessary casualties, the Demon Prince never showed, and even the Terminators did not come out until the fourth turn. The other highlights where my harlequins being spanked by Possessed, a really badly placed Fire Dragon squad being stomped by Berzerkers, and me finally realizing what the fuss over terminators is all about. So what did I learn? Vehicle upgrades are worth it, Dire Avengers are better than I had imagined, and I need some sort of visual markers to keep from forgetting Doom and Fortune.

As far as my list goes I feel solid over the three heavy choices (Falcon, Wraithlord, Dark Reapers), and the two troop choices (Dire Avengers, Pathfinders), but the rest is negotiable. The Harlequins are exceptional but do they fill the slot better than Scorpions or Banshees? I am honestly not so sure, they have better survivability but the attention is on the immediate threat of the heavy’s. The Fire dragons seem great for anti heavy but I have yet to actually use/need them in any game with the rest of my list more than compensating for their role. I think I will swap them out for a fast attack unit to harass and dwindle while casting dispersions elsewhere. Swooping Hawks actually sound like a great antimob unit with the added bonus of tank stunner but their effectiveness seems somewhat shabby. Warp Spiders always have me feeling as if I am simply not clever enough to use them properly, and Vypers just sound too cheesy/glass to add to this heavy list. I think the Avatar is awesome but it may be unnecessary serving as a minor distraction at the most while my heavy’s seem to be the major focus. A few people refer to the Avatar as a great unit to simply suck up attacks and inspire core choices, which is great, but not if all the commotion is on the heavy’s. The Farseer is great, Doom and Fortune are must haves but I am worried I will face the same problem in fantasy with High Elves that I do here. I always take Teclis, or a generic High Elf Mage to fulfill a support role and never feel satisfied with the use of points. The mages are never in the right place or have to decide which unit to save while another dies and I am constantly worrying about how to best use them. I think the Eldar Farseers are better than High Elf Mages, Doom alone seems completely absurd and the potential makes it more than relevant if not a requirement.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Things are moving right along, I was able to finish the Blood Red primer, Blood Red/Water coat, and black detailing of the middle Dire Avengers. I started on the heads and arms but I could not help start a Dark Reaper just to break the monotony. I was hoping to have the heads on at least for today's game but oh well.

My Blogs

Altansar

The Shadows of Altansar warhost focuses on the Dark Reaper Aspect Warrior and its niche in the Eldar world. Altansar is in your face, movement controlling, and dominates through selective combat. Distract, force route, negotiate pin, and flank. Imagine playing Wood Elves with High Elf elites… minus the dragons.